2 One can consult a reconstruction of the concept of the rights of the child, from the end of the 19th century up to the end of the 20th, in the text by Philip E. Veerman, The Rights of the Child and the Changing Image of Childhood (The Netherlands, International Studies in Human Rights, vol. 18, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1992). [ Links ]

11 The text is extensibly cited in Veerman, The Rights of the Child, pp. 435-437. [ Links ]

12 The evaluation about this particular subject has been notoriously critical, though in its time the new system of protection was presented as an expression of the progress of nations. About this, see Anthony Platt, The Child Savers. The Invention of Delinquency (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1977). [ Links ]

13 An example of this is to be seen in the book by the psychologist Alice Miller, For your own good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983), [ Links ]

15 There were probably other declarations circulating but we have found no trace of them. For example, the text by the Uruguayan educationalist José H. Figueira from 1910 and reedited in 1927 and 1939 was apparently only known locally. However, we will cite him again further on as he seemed to influence the declaration written by Rodríguez Fabregat. Another famous Uruguayan, Clemente Estable, presented a text organized as a Decalogue in 1928. Both are mentioned in a document of INN, La inclusión de la niñez con discapacidad (Montevideo, workdocument of PRODER, IIN, July 2001). The Chilean Amanda Grossi mentions an initiative that circulated in the First International Conference of Social Economy, that took place in Buenos Aires in 1924 (October 26th – November 4th). The text was supposedly ratified in Lima, during the Third Scientific Pan American Conference, that took place between December 1924 and January 1925. Amanda Grossi Aninat, Eugenesia y su legislación (Santiago, extended paper to apply for Bachelor's Degree at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Editorial Nascimento, 1941), p. 180. [ Links ]

31 Later on, this institution became the Interamerican Institute of the Child. Antecedents and constitution of the Institute in Boletín del Instituto Internacional Americano de Protección a la Infancia (from now on BIIAPI), Nº1, July 1927, pp. 7-14 and 29-66. [ Links ]

34 The subjects tackled in the VI congreso were transcribed in the Revista Chilena de Pediatría, Nº5, May 1930, pp. 272-279. [ Links ]

38 The chilean delegation was directed by César Godoy Urrutia. The international meeting was tense because of the withdrawal of some delegations and several accusations. There are brief news about the convention in La Nación, Santiago, 10 and 12 January 1928. [ Links ]

39 For example, the text was published in Boletín de la I.M.A. (Nº1, 1928) edited in Buenos Aires by Internacional del Magisterio Americano; also in Amauta (Nº12, February 1928, p.32), [ Links ]

the peruvian magazine directed by Mariátegui (next to the text of Rodríguez Fabregat, p.33) and in the weekly Repertorio Americano, of Costa Rica (Nº7, August 18, 1928, pp.106-107). [ Links ]

43 Among other things, the novelty of this declaration was that it included the right to "be understood"; to be protected from work that prevents his physical and mental development, limits his education and deprives him from the right to comradeship, joy and play; to give relief and education to blind, deaf or crippled children, and to give protection and care to intellectually subnormal children. The conference (White House Conference on Child Health and Protection) took place between 19 and 22 November 1930. BIIAPI, Nº4 (volume IV), April 1931, pp. 730-775. [ Links ]

45 For example, the law only referred to legitimate children, only limited the power of fathers (not of mothers) and only on an economic sphere (affecting the legal figure of ius patria potestatis under the formula established by the Chilean Civil Code, and not the tuition and care of the children). Besides, it didn't establish a system of assistance to allow the State to take care of those children. There was other criticism due to the fact that the conditions that defined abandonment were very restrictive and hard to fulfill. There is a summary to the law of 1912 in Hipólito Letelier González, La protección de la infancia (Santiago, , extended paper to apply for Bachelor's Degree at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Imprenta S.B., 1918), pp. 94-101. [ Links ]

53 The reference to the signs in the National House of the Child appears in Nelson A. Vargas Catalán, Historia de la pediatría chilena: crónica de una alegría (Santiago, Editorial Universitaria, 2002), pp.180-182; [ Links ]

69 Among those who set out criticism: Raúl Boza B., Filiación natural (Santiago, , extended paper to apply for Bachelor's Degree at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Imprenta Comercial, 1923); [ Links ]